Stephen D. Brookfield

Focuses on the college classroom. Some of the chapters have specific suggestions about getting students to open up, focusing on creating productive tension and discomfort rather than meaningless “safety.” (So weird to revisit these notes in the context of the current conservative moral panic.) Journaling and other reflective writing exercises are popular. Most chapters emphasize the importance of the instructor’s own vulnerability/acknowledgement of internalized racism and error, while show more still setting expectations about learning and conversations. Many suggested that getting white students to think about ways in which they have a disfavored characteristic (including gender, sexuality, and disability) could transition them into acknowledging racism and intersectionality. show less

I'm generally pretty liberal about race-related stuff, so no, my beef with this book is not that it's "too liberal." My beef is that this is the kind of white liberal guilt/white savior complex, wrapped up in a hearty portion of "I need my students to like me!!," that makes me want to hit my head against a wall. I'm reading this with a group of other English Comp instructors, and while I appreciate the practical discussion suggestions, I'm additionally at a loss as to how I can practically show more incorporate Brookfield's exercises, since they seem to be geared mainly towards "let's talk about the patriarchy!"-type discussions and not "let's talk about writing topic sentences!"

I wanted this to be good... really, I did... but I think Friere is still the classic, and truthfully more useful, text on the subject. show less

Donna Qualters, Director of CELT

Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, Stephen Brookfield (Jossey-Bass, 1995)
This is an “oldie but goody” and one of my most memorable reads. Stephen Brookfield believes that good teaching = whatever helps students learn. In his eyes, there are no magic bullets to be a successful teacher, but there are practices that promote continual growth and learning. The goal of the Critically Reflective Teacher is to demystify the process of reflection and help us show more gain an increased awareness of our teaching through the analysis of a critical incident from our own practice and to review it from as many different angles as possible. To this end, Brookfield proposes four lenses that can be utilized by teachers in a process of critical reflection: (1) the autobiographical, (2) the students' eyes, (3) our colleagues' experiences, and (4) theoretical literature. These lenses allow us to self-reflect, to seek student feedback, to engage our peers, and seek evidence based literature. This book won’t tell you how to teach but it will make you a better teacher! show less

I read this book for a seminary course in Christ Education. I greatly appreciated Brookfield's approach to education. I am unlikely to become a classroom teacher, so I may never get a chance to test out some of the approaches he presents. However, the underlying considerations will be very important to me as I think about how I teach in less formal ways.